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Monday, April 30, 2012

Startup City

A few weeks ago I had the
opportunity to find myself in lovely New Orleans for a Pulitzer family reunion.
My grandfather was the oldest of twelve brothers and sisters so there are a lot
of cousins as a result; and we thoroughly enjoy getting together regularly.

Before arriving in the
Crescent City one of my cousins [Carol Pulitzer]
emailed me she was moving back to "NOLA" (New Orleans, Louisiana).
She said NOLA was experiencing a renaissance technologically, entrepreneurially
and artistically. I was intrigued. I emailed another cousin [Alexa Pulitzer]
who's a 3rd generation New Orleanian and she enthusiastically confirmed it. Now
I was hooked on finding out more.

Alexa, who has her own
incredibly successful brand of beautiful stationery, mousepads, party cups and
other items, introduced me to The Idea Village
Co-Founder/CEO Tim Williamson. So, while there, before the reunion festivities
kicked-off, I walked a few short blocks from our hotel (the Monteleone, which
by the way charges an outrageous $10
a day per device to access the
Internet!) to their lofty space.

The next two hours flew
by in what was one of the most friendly and interesting meetings I've been
party to in a while.

The first 20 minutes or
so were filled with "oh so your cousin is..." and "I went to
school with your cousin ______ " and "my wife went to school with your
cousin _____." I was struck by the similarities of "who do you
know" and "what high school did you go to" between this town with
French origins and the country where I now live (France). I guess some old
habits die hard! Fortunately I had all the right answers. But there is
something to be said for Southern hospitality and, of course, Entrepreneurial
friendliness.

After introductions went
around, Tim provided me with an excellent background and overview on The Idea
Village and the city. Next Communications Manager Cameron Yancey offered the point-of-view
of a native New Orleanian on the city's new growth. The Idea Village is home to
several Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and one of them, Kevin Wilkins, provided
insights as a recently relocated Mid-Atlantic experienced business manager.

And without further ado,
here are the findings:

The Idea Village was
founded in 2000 by five entrepreneurs. The mid-80s were a time of cycling down
in New Orleans and the beginning of the Brain Drain. There were no quality jobs
being created and the focus was on tourism. After school a lot of the new young
professionals moved out of NOLA to live and work elsewhere. In the early 90s
those who decided to come back found themselves in a New Orleans with crime,
corruption, bad education and the worst football team in the NFL. It was bad
from all angles. The entire community was risk adverse and fractured.

The real problem,
however, was leadership. Bad leaders don't motivate problem-solving and
innovation. In this environment, only the crazy ones would attempt to be an
entrepreneur. And yet it is these very entrepreneurs who would attract outside
resources, and new networks, and create jobs, and new wealth and then those
people would create the change so desperately needed.

So. Tim and four friends decided
to change all this by each investing $2K to create a $10K business plan contest.
Like so many other startups, their first meetings were in a bar. Thus, they
were initially called the Loa Group
after the bar in the International House where
they frequently met. Utilizing their own network they received $15K donations
in free legal services, web design, a launch party and more. Seventy people
submitted their business plans and they reviewed them all, narrowing the
selection to five. The winners were two guys formerly from Shell Oil. The Loa Group helped them write their
business plan and out of this experience, wrote a white paper on why New
Orleans could be a business place.

This led to the fateful
meeting with the city Mayor, which didn't go well. (Read all about it here:]
Next Tim did what any forward-thinking entrepreneur would do. He waged war on
the Mayor and went to the Chamber of Commerce. That meeting went so well, the
contact in the Chamber was fired within a month! The regional Chamber was
collapsing and so they set themselves up as a non-profit in 2002. They kept
making noise and they got funding because people wanted to keep their kids, the
future of the city, there. On the same day in 2004 Tulane University and the
University of New Orleans came on board. They began getting support from local
businesses and the community.

Everything was developing
in a measured way until the hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August
2005. After this everyone became an
entrepreneur. There was a latent talent in New Orleans; the old networks got
fractured and New Orleans became global.
New Orleans became a laboratory for innovation and change. New Orleans became a
startup city. The people who came
there thought they could change the world.

Meanwhile, the now-named
The Idea Village was scaling up. They had "Idea Corps" week with six
universities and six startups. Jumping forward to 2010, they rebranded as
"Entrepreneur Week" and borrowing from two established iconic events
already in NOLA, they organized it like a Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras with multiple
events going on at the same time. However, like their predecessors, the
"festival" was still mostly attracting tourists and out-of-towners.

In 2012 they focused on
getting local entrepreneurs and called it "Entrepreneur Season."
Running from July to October they received 2100 registrants, proof of the
changing spirit of the city when compared to 2700 registrants from the first
ten years of this organization. This year they engaged 282 locals to support
697 entrepreneurs with over $2.2 million worth of strategic consulting,
resources, and startup capital. Never before had there been local engagement to
this extent. 1,500+ people showed up just for the final Entrepreneurial Pitch event,
The Big Idea. Google has also announced that they will be deepening their
relationship with the City of New Orleans in the coming year - stay tuned for
details.

During Entrepreneur Week,
The Idea Village also hosted the National Advisory Council on Innovation &
Entrepreneurship’s (NACIE) Quarterly Meeting. [NACIE was established by
President Obama and the U.S. Commerce Department in 2010 and advises the
Administration on developing a broader strategy to spur innovation and enable
entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough technologies and dynamic companies.]
NACIE chose to hold their quarterly meeting in New Orleans during New Orleans
Entrepreneur Week to highlight on a national level the great work happening in
New Orleans around entrepreneurship. The White House also hosted a Young Professionals
Forum in partnership with The Idea Village and 504ward
to engage New Orleans’ young professionals in a substantive conversation with
White House and federal officials.

The Idea Village
initiative is now viewed for its collaborative entrepreneurial spirit. There is
an eco-system in place now. What Tim thinks makes it special is to have it not
just a conference but as a season. Today
New Orleans is outpacing the nation in the growth of start-ups and NOLA was
recently named by Forbes as the
"#1 Brain Magnet in the Country," "#2 Best City for Jobs"
and the "Coolest Startup City in America" by Inc.com

2018 will be the 300th
Anniversary of New Orleans. There is a convergence of plans for the city. Now
is the time for all great new leadership and innovation and entrepreneurial
spirit to solidify their roots. Today there is a competent leadership in New
Orleans. There is an influx of young talent and wisdom. Tim's final thoughts
were "how do we sustain this? There is a whole lot of work to do. Now
we're out of the startup phase. We got the funding." Now it's a matter of
sustaining and organically growing, like all good startups.

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